In Inherent Vice, Pynchon revisits late 60s/early 70s Southern California, using a hippie private detective, Larry 'Doc' Sportello, as a point of identification for the reader. After his ex-girlfriend (for whom he still carries a torch) asks him to track down her current beau, a wealthy construction mogul who has gone missing, Sportello gets drawn into a gripping, funny yarn involving boats, brothels, gay neo-Nazis, and tax avoidance schemes by corrupt dentists. Thoroughly enjoyable.